Female Homicide Victims Research Articles

The influences of gender and income inequality on cross-national variations in lethal violence

The current research examines the cross-national relationship between income and gender inequality as well as their interconnected influences on both female and male homicide victimization. Using a sample of 127 heterogeneous countries, this research supports previous studies that economically stratified societies tend to have high levels of lethal violence. The study also finds that economically stratified societies tend to be male-dominated, which is also associated with increased violence against women as well as increased male-onmale violence.

Patterns of Female Homicide Victimization in Western Europe

Recent years witnessed an increase in attention to femicide, or the killing of women because of their gender. Prior empirical studies have drawn attention to the prevalence of female homicide victimization, but most have been unable to give a detailed overview of the specific contexts in which women are killed, and to what extent female homicide victimization is unique, i.e., in that it differs from male victimization. This exploratory study aims, first, to map the nature and scope of female homicide in six European countries: Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland; and, secondly, to compare female homicide victimization with male homicide victimization. Using data from a new uniform homicide recording system, the European Homicide Monitor, this study allowed for unique cross-country comparisons and a detailed breakdown by victim-offender relationship, and type of homicide. Results indicated that female homicide victimization rates remained relatively stable during the last decade, with a narrowing gender gap. Furthermore, results reflected substantial heterogeneity in the context in which women were victimized. Finally, female homicide victimization differs in many respects from male victimization, but overlaps do exist. Such heterogeneity, and possible overlaps with male victimization call for differential approaches.

From intimate partners to serial killers: Nearly 40 years of female homicides in King County, Washington (1978-2016).

An extreme, known potential outcome of intimate partner violence (IPV) is death, with national data revealing females are more likely to be killed by intimate partners than by others. In a novel pairing, the King County Medical Examiner's Office data management system and the Washington State Attorney General's Office's Homicide Information Tracking System were retrospectively analyzed (1978-2016) with information gathered pertaining to female homicide victims. Analyses show that female victims commonly knew their assailant(s) (79.3%) who were overwhelmingly male (92.8%) and commonly intimate partners (31.4%). Disproportionately represented were Black (20.17%) and Native American (4.25%) females; Asian/Pacific Islander (2.5 times that of Whites) and elderly (24%) females among homicide-suicide deaths; and Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic females in cases of IPV. "Domestic violence" was the most cited motive (34.3%) and most assaults occurred in a residence (58.73%). Females under 10 years of age were most commonly killed by a parent or caregiver (42.86%), while those over 70 were most likely to be killed by a child (23.08%) or spouse (21.80%). Serial murders, most commonly by the Green River Killer (80%) but including others, accounted for at least 7% of deaths, with victims notably young and commonly sex workers (68%). As compared to males, females were more likely to be killed by multiple modalities, asphyxia, and sharp force, though IPV-related deaths were more likely to be associated with firearms. This study reinforces the vulnerability of females to IPV, sexual assault, and serial murders as well as to caretakers at the extremities of age.

Female Homicide Victims in Cook County, Illinois: A Retrospective Review.

Female homicide is a broad term that includes any homicide in which the victim is a female, representing the most extreme form of violence against women. This study investigated the characteristics of female homicides to determine the types and characteristics of injury, circumstances of the events, and other aspects in this specific population. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office files were searched for homicides in female subjects between January 2017 and January 2022, with no limits for age, race, or cause of death. A total of 527 cases met the criteria. Most homicides occurred in Chicago during the summer. The most common cause of death was firearm(s) wounds, followed by sharp force traumas, asphyxia, and blunt force injuries. The remaining deaths were due to combined and "other" mechanisms. Different patterns of injuries were observed at the autopsy. Alleged offenders were mostly male subjects and were frequently in a romantic relationship with the victim, and the reasons for homicide were related to jealousy and personal conflicts. This study offers an overview of homicidal deaths in female subjects in a large metropolitan area.

Can information save lives? Effect of a victim-focused police intervention on intimate partner homicides

Funded by the Department of Justice, the Lethality Assessment Program (LAP) is a domestic violence protocol that has been implemented in over 600 police agencies across the US. Exploiting the variation in the timing of implementation across agencies in Maryland, I find that the LAP significantly reduced female homicide victimization by males. The effect is concentrated on the homicides of girlfriends. A back-of-the-envelope analysis suggests that homicides are prevented because the most at-risk victims are nudged to take protective actions by the information effect of risk awareness and safety planning that they receive during the LAP intervention.

가정폭력 범죄에 대한 체포우선주의 정책이 여성의 인명 피해 감소에 미친 영향

This study examines the relationship between arrest prioritization policies and arrests of domestic violence perpetrators and the number of female victims killed using a time series analysis, as well as the relationship between judicial action against domestic violence perpetrators and the number of female victims killed by male partners. Data on the number of female victims killed by their male partners came from the Korea Women's Helpline, and data on the number of female homicide victims came from the National Police Agency, including arrests of domestic violence perpetrators. The intervention analysis in time series with ARIMA model and Bayesian Structural Time-Series model(BSTS) showed that the number of arrests of domestic violence perpetrators increased significantly after implementing the arrest prioritization policy in 2013, but the number of female homicide victims decreased without a significant effect. The number of female victims killed by their male partners was inversely related to domestic violence-related measures, with the number of female victims decreasing as the number of arrests increased. An essential aspect of this study is the use of ARIMA intervention time series and BSTS in assessing the effectiveness of national crime prevention measures, as well as testing the impact of arrest prioritization on domestic violence offenses.

Disarming Intimate Partner Violence Offenders: An In-Depth Descriptive Analysis of Federal and State Firearm Prohibitor Laws in the United States, 1991-2016.

Intimate partner violence is a preventable public health problem affecting more than 12 million people in the United States annually. The immense burden of victimization is most often borne by women. Nearly one in two female homicide victims are killed by current or former partners (more than 50% of which involve firearms). Firearm-related morbidity and mortality are concentrated where firearm ownership is most prevalent and firearm laws are least restrictive, indicating the potential for law to serve as an intervention. Understanding intricacies within laws and how they vary is critical to studying their influence on health. This study is the first to use the scientific legal mapping technique of policy surveillance to create legal data by systematically collecting and coding laws that authorize or require courts to prohibit offenders subject to domestic violence restraining orders (DVROs) and temporary restraining orders (TROs) from purchasing and possessing firearms ("firearm prohibitor" laws). These data measure key provisions of federal and state laws from 1991 to 2016, including whether the law includes a firearm prohibition, who qualifies as an intimate partner, notice and hearing requirements, whether the prohibition occurs automatically or through judicial discretion, and if the law permits or requires the relinquishment or removal of firearms. The federal law, enacted in 1994 (and reauthorized in 2022), only protects qualifying victims that obtain final DVROs. States can mirror or go beyond federal measures. From 1991 to 2016, 38 states enacted a firearm prohibitor law through DVROs (37 states), TROs (20 states), or both (19 states). Today, survivors suffer from a sluggish and fragmented legal system leading to the unequal protection of victims based on where they happen to live. This research provides an in-depth descriptive analysis of this complex and nuanced legal system, recommendations to spur policy reform, and longitudinal data for future research.

Differences Between Sexual and Nonsexual Homicides of Women in the United States: Findings From the National Violent Death Reporting System.

Sexual homicide (SH) is the most severe outcome of sexual violence and disproportionately affects women. While SH is rare (<1% in the U.S.) and gravely understudied, it is among the most violent, feared, and well publicized forms of murder. Thus, examining predictors is pertinent to identifying targets for prevention and response efforts. Secondary analysis of 2015-2018 National Violent Death Reporting System data on 6461 female homicide victims age 20-64 was conducted to determine if SH represents a unique killing characterized by specific offender, victim, and incident profiles. Law enforcement and coroner/medical examiner narratives were reviewed to identify cases with sexual elements (N=324). Logistic regression estimated odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Findings highlight important differences between SH and non-SH. SH victims were more likely to be single (AOR=1.7,p=.006), have a substance abuse problem (AOR=1.4,p=.04), or engaged in prostitution (AOR=10.4,p<.001). SH suspects were more likely to be male (AOR=2.5,p=.04), use an illicit substance in the preceding hours (AOR=1.6,p=.03), or had recent contact with police (AOR=1.6,p=.01). SH was more likely to occur in a hotel/motel (AOR=3.0,p=.002), by asphyxiation (AOR =13.38,p<.001), be perpetrated against an acquaintance (AOR=1.64,p=.007), or be precipitated by another serious crime (AOR=2.1,p<.001). Findings advance our understanding of SH victim, suspect, and incident profiles, which can help to better inform police/investigative practices and crime prevention strategies/interventions as well as to improve how SH cases are managed in correctional programs for offenders who have the opportunity for release back into society.

Patterns of Intentional Dismemberment in Florida Medicolegal Death Investigations

This study identifies broad patterns of intentional dismemberment in Florida as observed in cases accessioned over a 15-year period at the University of Florida C. A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory. A review of all case files dating from July 2003 through June 2018 (N = 959) found 28 individuals with indications of intentional dismemberment. Decedents ranged from neonatal to 76 years in age at death; half were female, and 91.7% were identified by the medical examiner as White. Transection via sawing was the most common dismemberment mode (50%), followed by disarticulation of joints (19%). The most common implement was a saw, and electric reciprocating saws were the most common saw type. These data are compared to multiple U.S.-based dismemberment samples, positioned within a larger U.S. framework, and assessed against international data. Combined U.S. data suggest female homicide victims are more likely to be dismembered than male homicide victims. The use of three different modes of dismemberment, with transection by sawing more common than transection by chopping and transection by any means more common than disarticulation, is noted across the Eastern U.S. However, selection of implement and mode may be influenced by sub-regional factors such as population density. This is in contrast to available Latin American data, which indicate dismemberments—commonly in the context of organized violence and used as a means of symbolic communication—occur primarily to males and overwhelmingly by chopping. The discrepancies in dismemberment patterns between the U.S. and Latin American contexts illustrate the importance of sociopolitical circumstance when making broad comparisons across geographic samples.

A State-Level Analysis of Gender Inequality on Male and Female Homicide

Inequalities have received a fair amount of study from criminologists interested in homicide and crime. The vast majority of the examinations exploring the relationship between inequality and homicide and crime have examined income inequality. Nonetheless, feminist theorists have stated that gender inequality may be predictive of all violence, not just female victimization. The UNDP gender inequality index was replicated for states in the United States and applied to overall, male, and female homicide rates. The findings demonstrate that increased gender inequality is predictive of increased overall, male, and female homicide. These findings illustrate that gender inequality is predictive of overall, male, and female homicide victimization.

Do Gun Policies Really Protect Women? A Cross-national Test of the Relationship between Gun Regulations and Female Homicide Victimization

Globally, firearms are the most frequent means of committing homicide with young males most likely to be victimized with guns. However, within the context of intimate partner violence and family violence, females’ risk of lethal gun violence rises significantly, supporting the need to pay more attention to firearms to reduce lethal VAW. One way to protect women from firearm violence within the private sphere is to regulate access to guns based on the risk of family violence. This study examines the extent to which gun availability and gun regulations affect lethal violence against women in a relatively large sample of countries, controlling for established structural predictors of macro-level homicide rates. We find that the civilian gun ownership rate is positively related to lethal VAW. However, background checks do not have a direct effect on female homicide rates, although domestic violence background checks are significant under certain conditions.

Cross-National Examination of the Relationship Between Gender Equality and Female Homicide and Rape Victimization.

This study is the first cross-national work to examine the impact of gender equality on both female homicide and rape victimization. The data set from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was analyzed for 70 countries. Several gender equality measures were significantly and positively related to rape victimization, but were mostly not significant to female homicide. Findings for rape victimization were consistent with the backlash hypothesis, but such findings may be related to the limitations of police rape rates, such as different legal definitions and police-reporting behaviors across countries.

Gender Equality and the Usual Suspects: A Cross-National Study on Female and Male Homicide Victimization

Gender inequality is a central concept in cross-national feminist criminological literature. There is not a readily agreed-upon operationalization of gender inequality. The variation in the operationalization of gender inequality in cross-national research could be the cause for the inconsistent findings. We explored if the operationalization of gender inequality affects the association of the variables with gender-specific homicide across nations. Utilizing SUR and Wald Tests, our results indicate that measurement matters. When a measure of gender inequality includes an income competent, it has an association with gender-specific homicide. We conclude by situating our findings into the larger cross-national literature.

Female Homicide Victimization in Spain from 1910 to 2014: the Price of Equality?

This paper studies trends in female homicide victimization in Spain from 1910 to 2014 and puts them in relation with several indicators of the evolution of women’s roles and status in the society. According to mortality statistics, female homicide victimization followed an overall upward trend interrupted only during the periods in which the country lived under dictatorships. Measures of women’s roles and status in society show a change from traditional to non-traditional roles since the 1960s. A multivariate autoregression analysis suggests that the female homicide victimization trend is correlated mainly with opportunity-based and non-gender sensitive variables.

Barriers to safety for victims of domestic homicide

ABSTRACTResearch on domestic homicide has focused on risk factors presented by perpetrators such as prior violence, threats to kill, stalking, access to weapons, mental health concerns, controlling behaviour and separation. However, there has been less focus on the barriers that victims face regarding finding support, increasing personal safety and decreasing violence and risk of homicide. The present study explored 20 potential barriers that female domestic homicide victims faced using 183 cases occurring between 2002 and 2012 from the Ontario (Canada) Domestic Violence Death Review Committee to examine the presence and frequency of these barriers within the sample. Using two-step cluster analysis, different profiles of barriers were identified that centred on victims’ fear, social isolation and mental health. The study is limited in being a post hoc analysis of homicides and no causal links can be made. The implications of this finding are discussed in the context of risk assessment, risk management and safety planning.

Forensic medical aspects of femicide in Jordan

This study aims to highlight three types of femicide in Jordan – so-called ‘honour killings’, fatal intimate partner violence (IPV), and domestic violence committed by male family members other than the husband (DV) – and to compare them with the killing of women in non-gender related situations such as during a robbery.The autopsy reports of 100 adult female homicide victims dealt with at Jordan University Hospital in Amman during a 10-year period from 2006 to 2015 were reviewed. Based on information contained in the police reports they were assigned to one of four categories.Of the 100 deaths, 52% were classed as honour killings, 33% as fatal IPV and 5% as DV crimes, with non-gender related murders making up the remaining 10%. The majority (76%) occurred in the woman's home. The commonest cause of death was gunshot injuries, the severity of violence as judged by the largest number of major injuries was greatest in the honour killings, and 14 victims had defence wounds, again the majority in the honour cases. The hymen was found to be intact in 38% of the honour victims, while 33% in this category were pregnant at the time of death, compared to only 3% of fatal IPV victims. ConclusionsMost female murders in Jordan are committed by an assailant who is either a partner or a family member, the home becoming the most dangerous place to be for a threatened woman. With extra-marital pregnancy being one of the strongest motivators for honour killings, and old injuries a potential sign of ongoing intimate partner violence, forensic doctors can assist in recognizing these risk factors and thereby help potential victims. It is thus important to highlight some of the characteristic features of femicide.

An Evaluation of the Impacts of Changing Firearms Legislation on Australian Female Firearm Homicide Victimization Rates.

Reducing lethal violence against women requires comprehensive measures addressing individual, social, economic, cultural, and situational factors. Regarding situational factors, access to weapons-and firearm access in particular-has received notable research attention. However, most study comes from the United States of America, and findings may not apply elsewhere. The current study examines whether changing gun laws in Australia affected female firearm homicide victimization. Female firearm homicide victimization may have been affected; however, no significant impacts were found for male firearm homicide victimization. Findings suggest there may be value in preventing legal access to firearms by persons who have a history of intimate partner violence, although considerable further study is required.

Money Matters: Dissecting the Relationship Between Gender Equality and Female Homicide Victimization Rates in the European Union

This study utilized a fairly new measure of gender equality from the European Union to dissect the relationship between gender-specific homicide victimization rates and different forms of gender equality across a sample of European countries. Results showed support for a curvilinear relationship between financial equality and female and male homicide victimization, providing support for amelioration and backlash theories, but no support for absolute economic marginalization. While there were some similarities between the female and male models, there were enough differences to warrant further investigations of gendered theories of violent victimization.

The effects of detrimental drinking patterns and drug use on female homicide victimization rates across Europe

This study examines the extent to which drinking patterns and drug use can explain cross-national variations in female homicide victimization across Europe. Given the limitations in measuring femicide consistently across a large number of countries, this study uses mortality data on recorded female deaths as a proxy to explain differences in levels of this kind of violence against women across Europe. In particular, it focuses on national-level patterns of alcohol and drug use as predictors, controlling for other known structural correlates. Contrary to findings of previous studies, cultural drinking patterns were not significantly related to female homicide victimization in this sample of countries, but detrimental drug use was.

Punishing femicide: Criminal justice responses to the killing of women over four decades

The way in which nation states respond to femicide has become the focus of much attention in the past decade. The establishment of specialized police and prosecution units has been recommended and some countries have implemented specific legislation or criminal offences specific to femicide. Part of the challenge in moving beyond these legislative and policy initiatives is the dearth of reliable data that show how states are actually punishing crimes of femicide on the ground. Using data that document punishment outcomes in cases of femicide over four decades in Canada’s most populous province, this article examines how punishments compare for female and male homicide victims, across femicide subtypes and over time. Results show that cases involving female victims attract more punitive court responses overall than cases with male victims. Second, intimate and familial femicides are treated more leniently at several stages than other femicides. Finally, there have been positive changes in the punishment of femicide over time, paralleling legislative and policy responses to violence against women in Canada. Priorities for future research that address the role played by dominant stereotypes in punishment related to particular types of femicide as well as some women’s increased risk are highlighted.